A Roslindale street over the decades

1948

At first glance, not much has changed on South Street in Roslindale Square over the past six decades, as seen in these photos from the train station parking lot.

2011

It's still a relatively quiet commercial street of one- and two-story buildings. On the left, you can see the building where Derna's is and where Village Books used to be.

You have to look closer (at this larger version of the 1948 photo) to see the changes. The trolley track is gone (actually, just buried; whenever a large pothole develops in the street, you can look down and see shiny steel). Utility lines are now underground. A bank branch replaced the small block of offices and stores on the left. The trees in Adams Park are taller, making it harder to see the municipal building/community center. And the stores are different: The drugstore is now a flower/garden shop. But the fundamental bones of the place remained, even during the Square's collapse in the 1970s and 1980s, which let it come back as today's neighborhood center.

The top photo is from a large collection of traffic and road photos taken in 1948 and 1949 by the Boston Traffic and Parking Department. Posted under this Creative Commons license.